Canada’s Jackson Laundry drops in to discuss his career from start to present and how he’ll cope with his next challenge: taking on his first Ironman.
Don’t miss out! We have race news, career tales, and a baby update from Sarah!
The Zwift PowerUp Tri Podcast is hosted by former pro triathlete Matt Lieto and Zwift Academy Tri mentor Sarah True. Both are passionate about lending their in-depth knowledge of the multisport to the Zwift Tri audience.
Strava rolled out its “Local Legends” feature in July of 2020 as a way to reward consistency and not just raw speed. Unlike the Strava KOM, which is based strictly on segment time, athletes become a “Local Legend” for a segment by riding it more than any other rider.
It doesn’t matter how fast you go. It just matters how many times you’ve completed the segment recently. The idea is a brilliant one because it’s something Strava’s entire userbase can chase, from the fastest to the slowest. Or, as DC Rainmaker put it, “If you, like me, aren’t likely to take the KOM anytime soon – then you too can win an award for failing the most times.”
Local Legend status is granted based on a rolling period covering the last 90 days. Whoever has completed a segment the most over the past 90 days receives the laurel wreath as the Local Legend. There is an overall competition as well as one for women only.
As Strava says: these aren’t laurels you can rest on. Since your activities age off, you have to continue completing a segment in order to retain Local Legend status.
Every segment has a Local Legends detail page, available at strava.com/segments/[SEGMENT-ID]/local-legend in your web browser or by clicking “View Local Legends” on the segment’s detail page in Strava’s app.
For example, here’s a local segment where I’m currently the Local Legend: strava.com/segments/24430788/local-legend (you may call this a #humblebrag, but 3 efforts in 90 days isn’t exactly impressive. The competition pool is small.)
Got more questions? See Strava’s Local Legends support page.
Until this point, only IRL segments were part of the Local Legends feature. But now Strava has rolled it out to selected Zwift segments!
We’ve been told the 90-day rolling period began on October 18 – Strava isn’t entering older segment completions into the competition. So beginning yesterday, the following segments (all originally created as Zwift Insider verified segments) will award Local Legend status based on whoever has completed them the most:
Watopia
Richmond
London
New York
Innsbruck
Yorkshire
Makuri Islands
France
Paris
Watopia
Our sources tell us a wider rollout including more segments will probably happen once Strava has tested the feature with this short list. (See our full list of Zwift Insider verified Strava segments here.)
Of course, you can only grab Local Legend status if you’re uploading your Zwift activities to Strava. Activities must be public (visible to “Everyone” to be included in Local Legends count.
If you haven’t hooked your Strava account to Zwift yet, here’s Zwift’s support page explaining how it’s done.
Post below!
The latest episode of WoZ is out, covering all things great and beautiful in our favorite virtual world.
In this episode, host OJ Borg brings us:
Hopefully this is useful for more people like me who had an old Bkool Classic in a corner as they couldn’t use it.
Last week I purchased a Bkool trainer through Wallapop (Spanish second-hand app) and it didn’t get recognized by anything like Zwift or other simulators (even the BKOOL software itself). In the beginning I thought it was broken, as my ANT+ receiver didn’t get any information about it. What a bummer.
Usually, if you have a Bkool trainer, you’ll probably need to upgrade your ANT+ FE-C protocol before you can use it with Zwift, and this is done by using the “Bkool toolkit” app. The problem is that Bkool stopped being very “kool” as it doesn’t support old trainers like mine anymore. This means if you have one you would only be able to use it as a traditional “dumb” trainer, no more resistance change, only one speed.
In my case, the trainer didn’t have ANT+ FE-C because this protocol didn’t even exist when the trainer came to the market. Obviously, Bkool does this to force you to buy a newer model, even though yours is perfectly capable of dealing with modern software.
A smart trainer is, like a normal trainer, a stationary device attached to your bike which offers resistance to mimic the real world, but with the added benefit of allowing the resistance to be controlled by software. Let’s say you begin to climb a hill, then the resistance will go up and you will have to pedal harder, just like when riding outdoors. Software like Bkool or Zwift offer 3D worlds where you can move your own bike and train like if you were outdoors. Pretty cool stuff.
Because I won’t give up on stuff like this, I did some research and found an older version of the Bkool software that was able to update the firmware of old trainers for a limited time. This software is no longer available on the Bkool website.
Okay, let’s do it! First of all, you’ll need a USB-B cable to connect the trainer to your computer and a Windows computer.
Then, follow these steps:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Bkool Indoor\BkoolIndoor_Data\StreamingAssets\version.bat file with the latest version (5.64 in our case).
If everything goes fine, your trainer should have ANT+ FE-C up to date. Open Zwift and enjoy!
The InstaZwifters, a group of ragtag Instagrammers with middle-of-the-pack results and a penchant for cake, are looking for volunteers!
They need 100 Zwift users to help them take over Zwift on 18th December 2021 and ride for the Qhubeka Charity with the aim of raising enough funds to buy 100 bikes, so that 100 people can ride to a better future!
They are not that good at maths but after consulting their abacus that means 100 people need to raise 200€ each. It’s still a lot of money but it’s pretty attainable. Easy-peasy! Well, that bit is. You see, the InstaZwifters also want you to ride up and down Alpe du Zwift 8.5 times. That’s right, it’s a virtual Everesting Challenge!!
You have probably heard about Everesting, you might even know someone who has done it. The Hells 500, the creators and custodians of the concept, call it:
“FIENDISHLY SIMPLE, YET BRUTALLY HARD. EVERESTING IS THE MOST DIFFICULT CLIMBING CHALLENGE IN THE WORLD.”
This isn’t true. The hardest climbing challenge in the world will be getting back upstairs when you have finished, but that’s future you’s problem. There is no denying it will be hard, but it will also be epic, fulfilling, and it will change lives. Because every cent raised will go towards helping people get to work, get to school, to deliver medicine, to set up businesses, to reach places they never thought they could.
You will have the easy part to play in this, you will just have to sit on your bike and pedal. But know that every pedal stroke will bring you closer to that hall of fame and to making a real difference.
You have probably heard of the World Tour Team Qhubeka Nexthash but do you know about the Qhubeka Charity? Qhubeka is an Nguni word that means “to progress”, “to move forward”. Bicycles help people move forward. Qhubeka is a global charity that moves people forward with bicycles in Africa. People earn bicycles through their programs, improving their access to schools, clinics, and jobs. A bicycle is a tool that helps people to travel faster and further, to generate income, and to carry more. In the face of extreme and persistent poverty, bicycles can change lives by helping to address socioeconomic challenges at the most basic level – helping people to get where they need to go.
For more info on Qhubeka visit qhubeka.org
To ensure the money you raise goes to where it needs to go, the InstaZwifters have joined up with GivenGain (www.givengain.com) who will organize and distribute all the raised funds directly to Qhubeka. As it is a global organization it means you can raise money in your currency, so no need to visit the Bureau de Change!
Visit the InstaZwifters main fundraising page here: https://www.givengain.com/e/instazwifters-for-qhubeka/
But you won’t be alone.
InstaZwifters is all about community and encouragement and supporting each other so that’s why this will be a group event. You may be in your garden shed but this will be a global event with participants from all over the world, all riding together. In the lead-up to the main event the InstaZwifters will be hosting weekly group Meetups where you can get together and train with other participants on the mountain following a structured plan that slowly increases the distance each week with the aim of bringing you to the start line in peak condition.
Training began on Saturday 9th October at 07:00am Central European Time (CET) and be held every Saturday running consecutively until 11th December.
Guest riders will be making an appearance at some of the sessions to offer advice and encouragement, so make sure you don’t miss training!
Each participant will be able to download the Road Book that offers hints and tips about not only the physical challenge but also how to fundraise, as well as special offers for participants from their partners.
During the lead-up, InstaZwifters will post regular updates and tips for training and nutrition and hydration on their Instagram account (@instazwifters) plus features and a Training VLOG.
One of their partners is Precision Hydration whose mission is to give every athlete access to a personalized hydration strategy so that they have the best chance of achieving their goals. Precision Hydration will be supporting all participants with 15% off their first order and a free 20-minute one to one video consultation, along with a group webinar so that you can be ready to take on the challenge!
InstaZwifters don’t just have your training covered, but they have also thought about your recovery! That’s why they have joined up with Thrive Beer, the world’s 1st real sports recovery beer. A refreshing, naturally brewed beer in which they left out the alcohol and added 10 grams of high-quality protein for recovery after your ride. Developed by a Belgian cyclist and triathlete, in collaboration with the University of Leuven. No more need to choose between that tasty beer you crave after a ride and that recovery shake your body needs. Thrive are offering 15% off all participants’ first orders so you can still enjoy that beer after training! Find out more at www.thrivebeer.com and follow @thrivebeer on Instagram.
Once the training is done and you have set up your pain cave for your epic adventure, it will be time to go! On the 18th December the InstaZwifters will roll out at 5am (CET) as a group and take on the mythical mountain Alpe du Zwift together. The aim of the day will be to keep the power at the holy grail of 2.5 w/kg, so you can finish the challenge. It’s not a race! The ride leaders will stick to this pace and be there for you if needed. They want everyone to get back down off the mountain 😊
A few special guests will pop in from time to time to offer support and InstaZwifters HQ will live stream their efforts from start to finish with live chat and guests and a few cake recipes for those dark moments!
The aim of the challenge is to raise enough money to purchase 100 bikes (a bike plus accessories costs 200€) to help 100 people. You can raise the money by riding your bike up and down Alpe du Zwift until you have ridden the required 8848 climbing meters. This will unlock the Everesting badge on Zwift, but if you want to get into the Hells 500 Hall of Fame, you will have to follow a few more rules, one of which is setting your trainer difficulty to 100%. (There are more rules so its worth while visiting www.everesting.cc to get yourself acquainted.)
However, to take part in this challenge you do NOT have to meet these requirements, you just need to show up and ride your bike, so that means you can use a “Wheel On” trainer or a “Dumb” trainer, the important thing is the challenge and getting it done. 10+ hours on the trainer is hard no matter what way you do it!
The signup is now open!
To sign up you need to create a fundraising page, this you can do on the main InstaZwifters GivenGain page. Just click the blue start fundraising button and off you go. You can also download a copy of the Road Book, and, if you want, you can donate directly.
For more information and regular updates visit www.instagram.com/instazwifters and follow @instazwifters
InstaZwifters started out as DIY smart trainer builders based out of Wyoming. However, after some failed attempts using wooden rollers, an incident with a bear, and finding the commute to Wyoming a bit far, they changed to an Instagram-based Zwift support group. With regular features, news, events, tips and interviews as well as a ZRL race team, it is fast becoming the number one spot for Instagram using Zwifters! Find out more at www.instagram.com/instazwifters and follow @instazwifters they even have cake.
Post below and we’ll get them answered!
The day I tried to change the chain of the bike on my smart trainer was certainly one of the most memorable failures in the history of mankind: an absolute demonstration that not all human beings are living proof of Darwin’s evolution theory.
Furthermore, if the maintenance of bike mechanicals depended exclusively on my skills, bikes would become an endangered species in less than three years.
If an alien watched the three-hour video from the surveillance cam of my pain cave that day, he would be confused as he watched me fight against every single part of the bike. If he assumed that all humans were as dumb as the guy on the video, he would be torn between the attractiveness of a very easy invasion of planet Earth, and the idea that our uselessness for any kind of productive work would make even an easy invasion not worth the effort.
Everything started when I began to clean my entire Zwift setup. It happens on the last weekend of every month. The desk, the mat, the smart trainer itself, the pedals, the drivetrain, etc. Removed and clean the cassettes, clean derailleurs, etc. Full spa treatment for Amanda.
As usual, I took the opportunity to go through the checklist. One of the items is to verify the space between the cogs of the chain. This time it was clear my chain was too stretched, and I needed to change it.
I spent a good 20 minutes watching different video tutorials. It did not seem that complicated.
(Wait for it… I can see that you think you are anticipating the end, but, believe me, if this is eventually the case you have an imagination far more advanced than any Hollywood screenwriter.)
Next thing I remember, three hours had passed and I had dozens of small bike parts and smart trainer components spread all over the pain cave. My heart rate racing faster than it would in the last KM of a Bologna TT.
At this point it was way too late to ask for help, and the only rational solution would have been to put everything in several bags and run to my bike shop. That’s the home of my friendly local mechanic who already knows I was born with two useless left hand, after I tried to convince him to put tubes in the tubeless tires of my gravel bike.
But instead of admitting my defeat, out of pride I magically persuaded myself that if I just took a break, a fresh perspective would let me solve things myself.
(Note for myself: NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER AGAIN TRUST YOUR INSTINCT WITH ANYTHING RELATED TO BIKE MECHANICS! EVER!)
Exactly two hours later I came back to my project totally convinced I would beat the problem while the UCI World Championships live-streamed in the background (Alaphilippe rules!)
Big big mistake. Big mistake. No no no no noooooo!
I think that what happened in that room during the next 75 minutes may be the greatest act of cruelty towards any bike in the world.
Each time I was trying to reassemble all the parts into one homogenous body the “thing” was looking more and more like a Picasso painting from the later years of his cubist period.
Any resemblance to a bike in real life would have been pure coincidence.
After many episodes where I ended up banging my head against the wall, and several crises of anxiety, I managed to put things in good enough shape so I could present my “almost bike” to my beloved mechanic without totally losing every shred of dignity.
For those remembering how the thing started, the worst part is that the old chain was still in place, meaning the initial objective of my overall intervention was still pending a solution.
For the good Samaritans thinking “Well, s**t happens, everybody has a bad day”, let me be crystal clear: as a bike mechanic, I did not have a bad day, I am having a bad life. I am sure that if I reincarnated in a new body in two centuries I would still be a crappy bike mechanic.
This statement is the result of a series of events leaving no doubt about it. In fact, I could have started today’s article with the day I broke the caliper of my rear disc brake by forcing the screw in the wrong direction and having all the brake liquid explode in my hands. Or the day I thought I could fine-tune the setup of my front derailleur and finished having to change all of my shifting cables…
First, I can confirm that there is zero, absolutely zero, correlation between your Zwift level (42 in my case) and your IRL mechanic level (-17 in my case).
Second and more important. I can confirm that there is zero, absolutely zero correlation between the effort you put in trying to get better at bike mechanics, and the actual result.
Whoever believes talent in bike mechanics is not a natural gift should write his doctoral dissertation on the following question: “Are we all equally skilled bike mechanics?” Please make sure in your sample research you include one or two guys who were born with two useless left hands like me. You will see there is nothing you can do.
So, final question: who has a problem with her/his bike and wants me to take a look at it?
A collection of different group rides to try along with some Fondos to potentially race, for those that are wanting a bit of challenge!
I have to confess, I have never heard of this group until I saw the event in the Companion app. Then I did my research and saw they have a very active FaceBook page.
Not only is this group active on Zwift but IRL too! They look to be a genuinely fun bunch to ride with and if I was in Australia I would be seeing if I could tag along for a ride – since I can’t do that, I’m going to try and make it to one of their rides on Zwift instead.
These events will commence a 6:30AM AEDT and they will host a ride every 2 hours for a duration of 45mins. The final ride commences at 10:30PM AEDT and is to celebrate Cycling Mums Australia’s 2nd birthday on Zwift!
They will visit each of the 9 Zwift worlds with each of their nine CMA ride leaders taking the opportunity to lead. Rides will cover all the world’s time zones and are open to everyone to participate in.
Saturday, October 16 @ 9:30pm CEST/8:30pm BST/3:30pm EDT/12:30pm PDT
First event details and signup at zwift.com/events/view/2333725
I’m highlighting this little jaunt through France, up the Ven-Top, to highlight the fact that IRL, registration is now open for 2022 Haute Route events. If you fancy replicating the challenging rides from Zwift, these are the people to contact. Visit hauteroute.org for more details.
Sunday, October 17 @ 6:10pm CEST/5:10pm BST/12:10pm EDT/9:10am PDT
Event details and signup at zwift.com/events/view/2344662
If you’ve finished all of your Zwift Academy workouts, it’s time for the final effort – the Finish Line ride! This lets you compare progress you’ve made during the Academy, since you can compare your segment times to those set on your initial Baseline Ride.
Read Eric’s recent post about his Finish Line Ride experience, then do your own ride and give it all you’ve got! Be sure to take our quick Finish Line Survey afterward to let us know what sort of progress you made!
Multiple dates and times, see full schedule >
Rob and fellow Team members from Race3R have been leading people on an endurance training camp for several weeks now as they work towards an epic 12 and 24 hr cycling challenge, as reported here. Attendance on these training rides has been good and a community is forming. So if you fancy a unique challenge or simply want to undertake a long ride in good company on Saturday, this is the event for you!
Saturday, October 16 @ 8am CEST/7am BST
Event details and signup at zwift.com/events/view/2342970
If you read my articles, you’ll know I like a Gran Fondo. This event certainly looks like a fun one to try! The weekly BMTR Fundo events give you a choice of four different distances. These 4 distances vary from week to week and this week, it’s a big ride. Based on the R.G.V. course in France, the 4 options are:
It’s your choice whether to race it or ride it casually. Bonus: you’ll unlock the beautiful BMTR kit when you finish the event!
Saturday, October 16 @ 2:10pm CEST/1:10pm BST/8:10am EDT/5:10am PDT
Event details and signup at zwift.com/events/view/2343055
Note: if Saturday doesn’t work for you, BMTR hosts a Mini Fundo event at the same time on Sundays. And the longest ride is over 100km this week, so there’s nothing “mini” about that! Details at zwift.com/events/view/2344601
Got other events that stand out this weekend? Share below in the comments!
Because a picture is worth a thousand words, let me start with two thousand words: the following two pictures are taken from the pen.
Yes, I am the guy in pink, and this is very illustrative of my experience during the entire race: it felt like having a colonoscopy done without anesthesia while, at the same time, someone was crushing my testicles.
Excuse my language but I am writing this only 15 minutes after the race and every single inch of my body is still hurting. Nothing positive can come out of my brain for a while.
This is only my third race in A Category with the Coalition team. I died during the TTT for close to two-thirds of the race, becoming dead weight for the entire team. Especially sad since I gave it all I had, breaking my 10-minute power record.
In the second race, I had fun. A lot of fun, in fact. I was in the third pack, and helped chase the second one with a substantial contribution in the flats. We finally managed to join them with a great collective effort, even if the final kilometer was confirmation that I am the worst sprinter ever. In the hierarchy of fastest animals in the world, me pedaling a bike would be somewhere between a snail and a turtle, and that affirmation is in itself a huge offense to all snails and turtles of the world. To be fair to the snails, a fast snail might be faster than me.
Preparing for the third race, which was in Makuri Islands on the Flatland Loop, all the images of my trip to Japan in 2018 came back to me.
On many occasions during the recent lockdowns I’ve had serious nostalgia for Japan. I fell in love with Japan. Everything is aesthetic, everything is harmonious. I can’t wait to go back to Kyoto, to Shirakawa-go, to Miyama, to experience Sakura… but that’s another story.
Just to give you a final flavour of my addiction to Japan, when Makuri Islands world opened on Zwift, I spent two entire months only riding there. Workouts, meet-ups… everything.
Harmony, peace, generosity… Those were the words best describing my state of mind when joining the pen.
That positive feeling immediately disintegrated when the timer went to 0 and the pack left at 6,5 wkg for a km, spreading corpses in the back of the pack almost instantaneously. You could guess the casualties were already crying like babies on the side of the road as if they had gone through “the Barkley marathon” (if you don’t know what it is, search it on Netflix and prepare yourself to watch the craziest guys in the world racing the most difficult race in the world).
No break at all, no pause at all until the sprint in km 4,7, and then the climb…. and three times.
Let’s push the pause button now to pay my respects and highest admiration to Sherpa Dave.
Dave is producing DS notes for each race or TTT, with detailed instructions like the following one. Chapeau!
If you have not done it yet, you should definitely subscribe to his Youtube channel.
Now, after some compliments, let me tell you how angry I am at you Dave, since for this one it was all flowers and beautiful music while you should have warned all of us that this was going to be hell! You should have shouted at us to escape, to leave if we had one ounce of intelligence!
Going back to the race, I was left in the second pack at the end of the first climb. Everybody will understand when I explain how the guy just ahead of me started to become smaller in the screen, no matter how hard I pushed on the pedals, until he disappeared with the rest of the group. How lonely can you feel in those moments? Well, that’s exactly the moment when Tom, the captain of the team, decided to appear and be the teammate I would lean on. Suffering together was our fate today.
However, suffering did not seem to be exactly what some of the members of the pack were experiencing as one of them wrote in the chat “Come on! Let’s catch them back! Push harder!”
To which Tom answered “If I had the legs I would not be here but 30 seconds ahead!”
On my side, I was just amazed those guys were able to write! I could barely read nor remember my name and those guys were chit-chatting, trash-talking, and exchanging about the pros and cons between rim and disc brakes, or the type of sushi they like the best.
If at least they were writing about their legs burning as if someone had ignited a nuclear reaction in their quadriceps, or about the rhythm of their breathing being close to the one of a hummingbird, or their incapacity to articulate words, as if Tyson Fury had been beating them non-stop for ten rounds…
Why don’t you light a cigar and sip a scotch on the rocks at the same time, just to push the humiliation to the most extreme level possible?
As I was already the lousiest sprinter in category B, so I was anticipating I would finish last in this pack if I did not manage to split it in two or three. To keep the story short: I failed.
The sprint went exactly as expected: I finished 22nd out of the 23 members of the group, crossing the line just before an average snail and just behind a turtle and a fast snail.
Don’t refrain from making fun of me. This is happy hour. 😊
End of the story.
Now if you don’t mind I am going to bed and forget about today.
Back on August 30th I completed the first ride of Zwift Academy Road 2021 – the Baseline Ride. Many thousands of riders around the world did the same, then we dove into the ZA Road program – 6 workouts and 2 recovery rides – before arriving at the Finish Line ride.
Today was my day for the Finish Line effort, after taking it easy yesterday to recover from the prior day’s big ZRL race. I woke up early, joined the Twenty24 Road to Tokyo group ride for a warmup, then headed to the start pens. It was still dark outside, but I had 200mg of Military Energy Gum caffeine coursing through my veins and PR lotion on the legs, so I was ready to rock.
If you finished ZA Road 2021, please take a minute to fill out this short survey. It only takes about 1 minute to share how your Baseline Ride compared to your Finish Line Ride.
The results will be used in an upcoming Zwift Insider post, and they’ll be shared with ZHQ as well.
As we spun our way easy out of the start pen I checked the times and power averages I had set in my Baseline Ride:
Knowing those power numbers would give me some rough targets, plus knowing the length of each interval would help me with pacing.
Yesterday I set up a new rocker plate to test/review, and to be honest, the out of the saddle experience wasn’t what I was used to. So I planned to do most of my efforts seated, because I really liked the seated feel with this plate.
As I approached the start banner (very easy to see now that Zwift added big ZA arches at the start lines) I ramped up the watts, then just pushed harder as the road tilted upward. Knowing I had averaged 466W in my first attempt, I was watching my numbers and trying to make sure my power didn’t drop below that number. I was surprised to see my wattage staying near 500W. Could I hold this power?
The suffering really set in during the final 30 seconds. And with 10 seconds to go I was on the very limit, with my legs about to explode. But I kept pushing, giving it all I had – and took the KOM when I crossed the line. Hurray!
1:38, 515W average (10.5% power increase)
I wasn’t sure if I had just dug deeper in the first segment, or if my legs weren’t very recovered today – but after the feeling of those final seconds of the Titans Grove KOM, I wasn’t sure what I would have left on the other segments. But I wasn’t going to give up! So I rode super easy as we made our way down the hill toward the sprint segment.
At this point I was joined by another rider, Ricardo from the Coalition team, who hung with me as we made our way to the Italian Village. He congratulated me on grabbing the KOM (Ricardo had placed third).
As we hit the cobbles of the Italian Village I ramped up my wattage so I would hit the start line at a high speed. Then it was a head-down, all-out high cadence seated sprint to the line. Looking up at the leaderboard as I crossed the line, it had me in 1st place. Woohoo!
But victory is fleeting. Just a fraction of a second later I got bumped to second place as Ricardo flew across the line, besting my time of 23.36 with his time of 22.8!
Nice work, Ricardo. And I had improved on my Baseline time, which was all that mattered to me.
23.36 seconds, 755W average (9.1% power increase)
It seemed as though my legs were strong today, even though I felt like I lacked the stamina for a full-strength effort up the Volcano KOM. I spun super easy, making my way to the Volcano, chatting with Ricardo over The Esses.
I always dread the Volcano KOM, because it’s 8 minutes of pain and I’ve never felt victorious here in races – I always get dropped! But I had a target: 340W+. And my big goal was to finish in under 8 minutes.
Once again I ramped up the watts heading into the start, then tried to keep the effort steady, remaining seated. When the road got steeper I would try to increase my wattage, then I would ease a bit for microrecovery on the downhills and flats. Ricardo was sitting on my wheel, never more than 1 second behind.
I wasn’t sure if he was struggling to keep up with me, or just sitting on my wheel and biding his time. But seeing him just behind helped me keep the pressure on the pedals. I envisioned him pushing hard to pass me, and I kept trying to keep my effort high so he couldn’t do it.
We hit the flat section halfway up the climb and I was suffering, but not dead yet. So I kept hammering! Then with 400m to go the road tilted up even more, and that’s when Ricardo put the hammer down, coming around me at over 8w/kg and dropping me like a hot rock. I pushed with all I had in those final seconds, crossing the line in 3rd overall. Ricardo was in 2nd!
7:51, 349W average (4.8% power increase)
I edited the video so it just shows the start plus each of the three segments. Enjoy the silent suffercam footage!
This year’s Zwift Academy Road was a fun experience for me. The workouts were challenging, but doing them in a group setting pushed me so I never gave up or even touched my FTP bias setting. And the results of my Finish Line ride were pleasantly surprising! I had hoped to improve on at least one of the segments, but improving significantly on all three gives me a big morale boost.
Did I improve because I got stronger during Zwift Academy? Or were my improvements due to other reasons? Hard to say exactly, but I think it’s pretty safe to say that for many of us, a second attempt on the same course will yield a better result just because we’re more familiar with each segment and our abilities. Still, I feel like I attacked the segments quite well in my Baseline Ride, so I’m confident that at least some of my improvement is due to increased fitness.
What will Zwift do next for ZA Road finishers? They’ve promised an email to finishers talking about next steps based on your Finish Line results. Will they help me determine my strengths and weaknesses? Give me training tips based on my results?
Like I said in my Baseline Ride article, the Baseline/Finish Line rides idea is a good one. But it has a lot of untapped potential in terms of better metrics (e.g., showing riders their average power for the segments) and personalized training advice (e.g., “VO2 power is your biggest weakness, here’s how to train it.”) I think we’ll see it in coming seasons.
How did your Finish Line ride go? Share below, and don’t forget to complete our short survey!
Have you finished your Zwift Academy Road 2021 program yet? How did your Finish Line Ride performance compare to your Baseline Ride?
Take our short survey below – it only takes a minute, then you can browse the survey results afterward to see how your answers compare to others. Ride on!
